E3 2009: The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest Hands-on

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Gandalf just got adorable.

By Greg Miller

The Lord of the Rings is a story that can appeal to all ages, but some stick-in-the-mud parents might not be down with their kids watching fingers getting bitten off and trolls getting their heads lopped off; that's why Warner Brothers and Headstrong are bringing your family room The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest.

If the kiddiefied visuals didn't give it away with their brighter colors and cartoon-like character, Aragorn's Quest is a retelling of the Fellowship's journey to Mordor. However, rather than just have you play through the same old events you all know and love, Aragorn's Quest has a twist -- this is the story as told by Samwise Gamgee to his children. Rather than give the children the straight dope, Sam skips the boring stuff, dumbs down the violence, and drops in the excitement.

Back, spider!

My demo picked up with the Fellowship in Moria. Now, in the movie, this section of the movie was pretty much the Fellowship getting run out of town, but here, they gave a fight against giant spiders and mini-orcs! When you play Aragorn's Quest, you're only playing as Aragorn. If another player decides to drop in and play, her or she puts on the hat of Gandalf. There's no switching of characters in the game; player one can only be Aragorn and player two can only be Gandalf.

Anyway, controls are super-simple in this title. The nunchuk is Aragorn's secondary weapon (a torch of a shield in my demo) and shaking the device makes the hero charge or swing the weapon. The Wii-mote, on the other hand, is Aragorn's sword. Swinging it around swings the sword around, while holding B and swinging the sword performs a special enemy-clearing move if you have special move juice in your meter at the top of the screen. If you equip Aragorn's bow, you can no longer move but you can aim your trusty arrow at any bad guys coming your way; even better is the fact that you can paint multiple enemies and just watch as Aragorn takes them all out in a second. Meanwhile, Gandalf only uses the Wii-mote as he hurls fireballs and heals Aragorn -- the old man is strictly a support character and cannot die.

As you battle the giant spiders Sam has dropped in the story to keep the kiddies interested, you'll be making your way toward the giant star on the compass at the top of the screen. These markers, which show up in the level as well, are here so that there's no possible way for you or the young ones to get lost. The player is always pushing toward those golden objectives.

Awwwwwwwwww!

For a kid/family game, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest was actually pretty cool. The ability to paint targets and let the bow do the work was neat, the idea of hearing the Fellowship story from Sam's perspective is cool, and the game looks cute. It might not appeal to the hardest of hardcore Tolkien fans, but Aragorn's Quest seems to have a lot going for it and hobbit-feet wearin' parents should be on the lookout for more information about it soon.